The Return of the King(maker)

 My Kickstarter copy of the new edition of Kingmaker arrived back in March but has been sadly unplayed since then.

[There's a post about the newly arrived box here... Link]

This week we more than made up for it with 3 games in a week!  The first two games were 5 player versions (original KM takes 6 players, the revised Kingmaker 2 can accommodate up to 5) and the 3rd game was a 2 player head to head.

In the 1st 2 games we also used the preset factions.  One of the issues in Classic KM is that having a duff or brilliant starting hand can really mess up the opening moves... this version gives everyone a selection of Nobles, Titles (ie the Earl of....) and offices (eg Admiral of England or Chancellor etc), as well as a selection of Bishoprics, Towns and mercenaries. These all give you additional troops as well as control of towns and  castles.  Using the preset factions makes it all a bit more balanced.  In the final 2 player game we randomly allocated cards.  Even then. Some of the more powerful cards (eg the Marshal of England or Lord Percy) are held back until later.

We made a few mistakes but all in all the games worked really well..  the updated rules make it a much faster game (we reached a conclusion in an evening) and avoiding some of the stalemate positions that KM always seems to descend into with large stacks of Nobles glowering at each other from either end of the country.  Now you can win by gaining prestige from holding Offices, winning major battles etc, as well as controlling Royals.  The old tactic of sitting back and waiting doesn't really work any more.

Each game featured all the things we love about KM... treacherous battles, people dying of plague just when they thought they'd found sanctuary in a city and wheeling and dealing to form alliances.  

It was interesting to play the 2 player variant which I'd never tried before.  It worked well: obviously there's less subtlety in tactics... you know you're going to be attacked by your opponent and there won't be any deals to be struck... but it made for a challenging and fun version.  As usual when playing against my son I had my arse handed to me but the Prestige points swung wildly... at one point he was almost in a position to win (thanks to his possession of Henry VI) but the King was summoned to an embassy at Ravenspur.  My noble, Lord Scrope swooped in and seized the king, dispatching the accompanying Lord Hastings... all the Prestige points swung my way and balanced the game!  But then more enemy Nobles piled in and we had to fight the 2nd Battle of Ravenspur where Scrope met a brave but doomed end.  A great conclusion to the game.

The game also includes 'Classic' KM for the nostalgia value but more interestingly it includes 'Extended Classic KM' which adds some interesting variations to the rules including fatal storms at sea, treachery and pirates!